I think that i started to feel this in the years of Reagan’s presidency (I lived and worked in Europe in those days). Still a little hidden then, it seems to be blatantly obvious now, they no longer try to hide it.

For important data, I have around 100 GB in an AWS bucket, all encrypted backups (moved away from Dropbox a few years back). It costs me about €5 or 6 per month. Thinking about moving them to a European provider, though not sure where to as yet. Less important data stay local on external disks.

I use a SIP phone service now (zadarma.com). They have an app for Android, and it also works with the SIP clients on my Linux desktop. Can’t give a longtime review of them yet, as i am a Skype “victim” too, but so far so good.

I think there is another messenger called Viber that can call landlines, but it looked a little sketchy to me.